Companies warming up for 3G systems
( 2003-09-18 10:15) (China Daily)
The world's sixth largest semiconductor maker, Infineon Technologies, has
joined with Chinese telecom network giant Huawei Technologies to make a low-cost
mobile phone platform for third generation (3G) mobile telecom systems, marking
another major step in the market's development in China.
"The biggest question is how we can stimulate the 3G market and our
co-operation with Huawei aims to find a right approach for that," said Ulrich
Schumacher, president and chief executive officer of the German semiconductor
firm.
He explained in an interview in Beijing yesterday that the difficulties 3G
has met so far in the world resulted from the fact telecom operators and
equipment makers focus too much on the high-end multimedia and data applications
market. It also meant its volume was quite small, and the rollout of the systems
could not bring good returns for operators and equipment vendors.
Infineon and Huawei aim to build a mobile phone platform for wideband code
division multiple access (WCDMA) system, a major 3G standard, and make the
prices of the phones affordable to ordinary users with simple functions of voice
communications and transmission of short messages.
Xu Zhijun, president of Huawei's wireless product line business, said most of
the 3G phones in the world sell at a price of over 5,000 yuan (US$603). But the
two firms are expected to bring the prices down to that of 2G phones, which is
usually less than 2,000 yuan (US$240) in China.
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